Noche Triste

Aztec attacks turned the retreat into the Noche Triste, or ‘Sad Night’. Many Spaniards and their allies died, and much of the accumulated treasure was lost. Cortés’s defeat showed that Spanish weapons did not make victory inevitable.

The Spaniards called the retreat Noche Triste, the ‘Night of Sorrows’. Cortés and the survivors eventually reached Tlaxcala, whose people were enemies of the Mexica and allies of the Spaniards. There they could rest and regroup.